"With China's propaganda policy, many Chinese people believe that their government is so gentle and that China is bullied by neighboring countries. Even the tiny Brunei could "rob" China’s sea," Mr. Chu Cong Phung, former Secretary of the Vietnamese Embassy in China (1987 - 1991) and former Vietnam’s Ambassador to Myanmar (2009-2012) told VietNamNet.

Q: You once were part of the Vietnamese delegation to negotiate with China. Could you explain to our readers why China deployed its oil rig in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam at this moment?

China's HD-981 oil rig. Photo Dan tri

A: There are three reasons:

First: Publicly challenging the US role in Asia. You know, in the crisis in Ukraine, the relations between the US and the EU with Russia became tense. US - China relations were also in trouble because China supported Russia to win lucrative gas contracts worth $400 billion.

In this context, in late April 2014, President Obama made a visit to four countries in Asia, including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia with two clear goals: (1) ignoring China and together with its partners to promote the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement - TPP; (2) committing to protect US allies – Japan and the Philippines – from the increasing military threat from China.

Less than a week after Obama’s Asia visit, China responded by challenging the US role in the East Sea.

It blatantly deployed the HD-918 oil rig in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam to both indirectly challenge the US, Japan and forewarn the US’s Asian allies and the countries that have a dispute with China over the islands in the area.

However, China dares not put its oil rig in the East China Sea area that is in dispute with Japan and the waters of the Philippines so as to not directly provoke the US.

Second, dividing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). China deployed its oil rig in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam 10 days before the opening of the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar.

China hoped that Myanmar - the country that has no sea border with China and is receiving many big projects from China - would favour China so the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar would then be divided, and ASEAN would be unable to release a joint declaration on the East Sea issue, even though Vietnam at this forum has accused China of violations.

Q: But what are the results?

A: Obviously China’s plot went bankrupt. With the full-fledged chairmanship by the host country Myanmar, ASEAN countries had a common voice on the East Sea issue.

The statement by the chairman of the 24th ASEAN Summit on the East Sea situation and the Joint Declaration of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers expressed deep concerns about the ongoing incident.

It called all parties to fully implement the Declaration of Conduct in the East Sea (DOC), to restrain and not to use or threaten to use force, and to settle disputes by peaceful means, comply with the principles of the UN Convention on the Law on Seas 1982 (UNCLOS) and the proceedings on the formation and signing of the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Third, China wants to ship internal conflicts outside its border. The Chinese society has unrest after the recent incidents... To win the Chinese people’s support, China has shifted public opinion on the outside issues and mobilized its massive propaganda machine to slander Vietnam, saying that it had provoked China, thereby defusing its internal conflicts.

Thus, the aim of China is very clear: gradually implementing the so-called "sovereignty" of Beijing over the areas within the "U-shaped" or “cow tongue” to occupy most of the East Sea.

If China realizes that ambition, they will completely control the transport routes in the East Sea and the exploitation of natural resources in the area. Later China will reach beyond the Indian Ocean to perform the "Chinese dream" of dominating and controlling the world.

Q: Could you tell us more about China's ambitions?

A: China has a lot of documents about this. I would like to quote an official document of China, which aims to make Chinese believe in the lies.

The book "Meditations on the Pacific," published by the China Defense University Publishing House in 1989, wrote that China’s millions of square meters of sea and islands were “robbed” by the neighboring countries, specifically:

+ In the North Yellow Sea: China said that China and the DPRK have the same continental shelf. When the boundaries of the North Yellow Sea were defined, although the two countries agreed about the principle of dividing the area by the median line, North Korea claimed the area to the half of the line to take at least 3,000 km2 of sea more than China’s.

+ In the South Yellow Sea and northern East China Sea: China and South Korea share the same continental shelf. By the principle of lengthening the natural position of the Yellow River to the sea, China should have been had the larger territorial waters but South Korea insisted to define the boundary based on the median line so this country "occupies 180,000 km2 of the sea of China”.

+ In the East China Sea: China and Japan do not have the same continental shelf, but Japan insists that they have the same continental shelf to occupy China's Diaoyu island (Senkaku) and 210,000 km2 of territorial waters. In January 1974 Japan and South Korea signed the "agreement on the joint exploitation of the continental shelf" to occupy an extra large portion of China's continental shelf.

+ In the South China Sea (East Sea):

The Philippines occupies most of the Nansha Islands (Spratly Islands) and the waters from Huangyan Island to the east part of Taiwan which should belong to China. Totally the Philippines illegally takes 420,000 km2 of China’s sea.

Malaysia: In 1979 this country declared their continental shelf scope and added Anba Island and part of the East Sea to their map, illegally occupying 240,000 km2 of China’s waters.

Brunei extends their continental shelf to the East Sea, encroaching on China’s traditional boundaries (U-shaped line) of about 3,000 km2.

Indonesia’s territorial waters encroach onto China’s water for around 40,000-50,000 km2.

The US occupies China's Huangyan Island in the northern Philippines, setting up a firing stance for the U.S. Navy there.

Vietnam not only illegally occupies more than 20 islands in the Nansha (Spratly) of China and over 400,000 km2 of the surrounding waters but also makes a sovereignty claim for all of the Xisha (Hoang Sa - Paracel) and Nansha Islands (Truong Sa- Spratly Islands) of China.

Nobody in Asian countries, except for the Chinese could believe in these words but with China’s propaganda machine, it made many Chinese people believe that the Chinese government is gentle and that it was bullied by all neighboring countries. Even Brunei, a tiny country, "robbed" the sea of China.

With this ambition, we can anticipate that China will sooner or later deploy oil rigs and warships to encroach on the waters of all neighboring countries in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia.

Q: In the oil rig event, what new tactics did China employ?

A: In the past, when China infringed on Vietnam's islands and waters, cut the cables of Vietnamese surveillance ships, rammed the fishing boat and killed nine Vietnamese fishermen who were catching fish in Vietnam’s waters, it always used the tricks of hiding the incidents and not to internationalize the East Sea disputes.

This time, the Chinese blatantly infringed upon the sovereignty of Vietnam's islands. They openly confronted Vietnam and international opinion.

In terms of scale, this time China brought a big oil rig and hundreds of vessels, including warships, deep into the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam, attacking Vietnamese vessels by water cannons and rammed the ships of the Vietnam law enforcement and Vietnamese fishing boats. They are ready to create a reason for conflict with Vietnam.

They also slandered Vietnam, saying that Vietnamese boats harassed and crashed into their boats.

Q: In this incident, what does China gain and lose?

A: After two months invading Vietnam’s marine sovereignty, China has lost more than what they have gained.

The things that China have gained are: On the field, it put its oil rig in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam, openly challenging international opinion.

In terms of public opinion, they have partially taken internal conflicts outside national boundaries and provoked chauvinism in their country.

But China has also lost much more.

First: Its "peaceful rise" strategy that was painstakingly prepared from the 16th Party Congress and disseminated via propaganda over a dozen years has totally gone bankrupt.

Second: Its blatant acts have been objected to by most of the powers and the world community.

A fact that is set in front of China: On the path of development from a major country into a world power, China is increasingly isolated.

Third: For decades China has spent a lot of money implementing the policy of "breaking each chopstick", by bribing some Southeast Asian countries to support China in bilateral negotiations with each of the ASEAN countries that have marine disputes with China, to not take the East Sea dispute to regional and international forums.

But the aggressive actions of China in Vietnam and the Philippine’s waters have made ASEAN countries become closer, creating a common voice asking China to strictly implement the joint declaration between ASEAN and China on the East Sea (DOC) and to negotiate with ASEAN to achieve the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Through this event, all ASEAN countries that have marine disputes with China are keen to internationalize the East Sea issue and prevent China’s expansion ambition in the area.

To be continued…

Hoang Huong